The End of the Line
Michigan’s glorious season comes to an end with a numbing 3-2 OT loss to Denver, but there’s no reason to let that sour you on the 2021-22 Michigan Wolverines
For a team of this pedigree, there are no consolation prizes. When you have a dozen future NHLers in the lineup, seven of them first round draft picks, there is just one acceptable outcome: a championship.
On Thursday evening, the University of Michigan men’s ice hockey team, the most talented team in the history of NCAA hockey (we’ve been saying it all season, so why stop now?), fell short of that objective, losing 3-2 in overtime at the hands of a formidable Denver Pioneers squad in a national semifinal at Boston’s TD Garden. A tenth national championship banner in Yost Ice Arena’s rafters will have to wait.
For Michigan, sudden death came fourteen minutes and fifty-three seconds into a frenetic overtime period when Carter Savoie pounced on the rebound of a Bobby Brink centering attempt. The Pios’ big line came through in the season’s biggest moment, and, in a flash, the Wolverines’ dream died.
After nearly seventy-five minutes of hockey, Denver acquitted itself as the better team on Thursday night. Entering the contest, Denver were billed as an offensive juggernaut, with the expectation that a match-up with the high flying Wolverines would turn into a wide-open, high-octane track meet.
To be sure, there was space to be exploited in both directions at various points throughout the game, but even those extra fifteen minutes weren’t enough to bring the combined shot ticker up to 60. Instead, the Pios commanded the game through physicality and control of the middle of the ice.
A physical opponent was nothing new for the Wolverines, nor was one with comparable top-end talent; the combination, however, made life difficult for a Wolverines team that thrives on speed and passing.
At both ends of the rink, high-skill evasive maneuvers to maintain control of the puck—plays the Wolverines have made routine this season—saw players in white sweaters temporarily break free from their defenders only to be stymied by a body check.
Denver’s success at clogging the neutral zone led to repeated whistles against the Wolverines for offsides. There were a few promising rushes in transition—perhaps most notably a two-on-one opportunity in the dying stages of the third, when the puck rolled on Luke Hughes leading to a rather routine save for Magnus Chrona, but those opportunities were seldom.
Despite (significant) flaws, the Wolverines were within a shot of winning the game, and that margin felt reasonable. Michigan killed off three Pioneer power plays, including two in the final ten minutes of the third, a fact that would have seemed to justify a victory, especially considering a power play opportunity never came the other way.
Michigan undeniably carried play for significant stretches, including at the start of the second period and the start of overtime and in both cases were perhaps unfortunate to not see those moments of dominance manifest on the scoreboard.
The Wolverines’ Olympic line of Matty Beniers, Brendan Brisson, and Kent Johnson best illustrated this dilemma. In our Frozen Four preview, we discussed Brisson as a player who is decisive, without always appearing influential throughout a game. Tonight, the Wolverines’ top line was the opposite at the wrong moment.
The trio managed to hem the Pioneers’ into their own end on several different shifts, cycling the puck around the perimeter waiting for a pathway to the net to materialize as if on the power play. In a testament to Pioneer coach David Carle’s defensive structures, those lanes never seemed to appear.
Luke Hughes stood out as ever, his skating so mesmerizing as to make a national semifinal look like an intramural game between two teams with one experienced hockey player between them. Wondrous footwork walking the blue line afforded him a few decent looks at Chrona’s net from the high slot, yet the outcome was the same as the Olympic lines’—intriguing opportunities that never evolved into something more.
We opened with a cold declaration—for a team of this talent, anything short of a national title would feel a failure, but if we’re honest, we don’t believe that. Disappointment? Sure, but failure? No.
That is of course, because even in agonizing defeat, there should be no ignominy on the Wolverines’ behalf. To set aside the bitter outcome is to recall the moments of magic that came, even on a night when the team was not operating at the height of its abilities.
First among them was Thomas Bordeleau’s equalizer in the third period.
At first glance, the goal appears opportunistic. Yes, Bordeleau flaunts his edgework by slamming on his left brake while simultaneously opening up for a forehand opportunity, but the goal appears a product of a fortunate bounce following an entry level instinct of a goalscorer to stop short in front of the net.
Upon further review though, Bordeleau creates his shot with a surgical touch on his backhand to open up a look at the net.
The move is reminiscent of a finish from France’s Karim Benzema in last summer’s Euro 2020*.
Like Bordeleau, Benzema takes advantage of a first touch that may look fortuitous but is in fact the product of superhuman processing and skill to set up a close-range finish.
As if all that weren’t enough, the rush that produced the goal originated with a Bordeleau blocked shot.
In an interview with Everything College Hockey’s Puck in Deep podcast before the season, the Texan Quebecois joked that his only blocks as a freshman came by accident. This sacrifice was intentional, purposeful, and testament to the championship desire of the Wolverines, even those with shimmering NHL futures near on the horizon.
The Wolverines’ other goal came at the opposite end of the offensive spectrum. The team’s fourth line made up of senior citizens in relative to the youthful roster combined for a simple cycle-and-stuff. Jimmy Lambert got himself the goal, with running mates Nolan Moyle and Garrett Van Wyhe assisting.
The goal did not exemplify the dazzling skill inextricably linked to this Michigan season, but it provided a reminder that this was not some all-star team of disinterested individuals. This was a team, one with four unique and high-functioning lines that fit into a symphonic larger structure.
When we at Gulo Gulo think back on this year’s team, Carter Savoie won’t be in the picture. Instead, we will think about what it was like to watch them race through the neutral zone. We will think about the joy with which they shared the puck, scored, and won a (Big Ten Tournament) championship.
In the buildup to the game, Mel Pearson touted Michigan’s “natural goalscorers” as a potential pathway to success. Without a doubt, this team boasted fearsome finishers, but often what felt more significant was its passing and skating.
That is what we will remember most and fondly. Staring slack-jawed and drooling as the Wolverines charged through the neutral zone to the terror of their opposition. Seemingly every forward on the team could send or receive a rink-wide pass and find a way past an opposing defenseman one-on-one. Seemingly every defenseman on the roster could snap a stretch pass tape-to-tape and felt no compunction about operating below the offensive circles.
This was a team that played with joyful exuberance, relishing the moments where they infuriated those inclined to offer the suggestion “SHOOT!” the instant the puck crosses the red line.
All season long, a cynic would have no trouble dismissing the Wolverines’ tournament chances with a brief “too young, too dependent on skill; it won’t work in the postseason.”
In the end, the Wolverines did not achieve their ultimate goal, but the notion that their tendency toward offensive flair doomed them is laughable. The nation’s four highest scoring teams comprised the Frozen Four. The top two of that heap advanced to the national championship game.
No, Michigan’s defeat need not suggest some systemic failure. Instead, it is reflective of the cruelty of single-elimination, sudden-death games and puck luck.
We don’t wish to suggest that championships are trivial. That would feel woefully incongruous with the mindsets of the athletes who put these games on for our viewing pleasure. What we do wish to suggest, though, is that the beauty of this Wolverine team cannot be sullied by the tyranny of small sample sizes.
Anyone who had a chance to watch this year’s Michigan Wolverines take the ice should count themself lucky, and we’re not sure what more one could ask from a hockey team.
Editorial Note: There is of course more to cover, with respect to various Wolverines’ shiny new contracts in the show and the contract status of head coach Mel Pearson. Expect full breakdowns of those and more in the upcoming Midweek Roundup. In the interim, congratulations to Matty Beniers, Owen Power, and Luke Hughes on their All-American honors.